Interview with Trigger Point Vocalist Taylor

Since their late 2001 inception, Trigger Point have been taking over the west coast with their unique sound. An almost perfect balance between melodies, powerful guitar riffs, and chest pounding grooves. A balance that caught the attention of Corporate Punishment Records, who signed the band right away. Thus making way for the “official” debut release of, ‘A Silent Protest’. I got a chance to chat with vocalist Taylor a couple days before the band’s trek across the country, who by the way will be heading your way, so check out the tour section, and this is what he had to say.

JH: Tell us about Trigger Point.

T: Well, we formed in 2001. Right after the 9/11 tragedy, and it was first just me Mike and Dave. The guitar player and the drummer. We met and started jamming and we found a bass player and we kind of played around for a couple years, and when we got serious, we got Paul who is our current bass player. Really we’ve been just hitting the heart of Los Angeles for the last four years. Playing with everyone and anyone we could, headlining the biggest venues out here we could.

JH: Now ‘The Silent Protest’ is your debut release. Can you tell us a bit about it?

T: It’s a record that we really didn’t plan on being a record. We sort of record as a demo to sell out on the road. We ended up going into the studio with Logan, to do the record. Logan Mader from Machine Head and he ended up making it sound amazing and we changed a bunch of stuff and it started to sound like a real record. So we were mixing it and Logan asked if he could show it to some people. Then we started talking with the guys at Corporate Punishment Records, and they wanted to put it out.

JH: So how’s it been going with them as a label?

T: It’s been going good. They are a new label, so that can be frustrating at times cause everything they’re doing with us, they’re doing for the first time. But they’ve done a lot more with it than we thought they would. So we are kind of excited about it.

JH: So you’re heading out on the road this week?

T: Yes. We’ve got our release show at The Whiskey on Thursday. And then we leave Saturday, I think.

JH: First time out for this album?

T: No. We’ve been out three times in the past year for the album. The album was initially released last November. It wasn’t until just recently that we signed a nation distribution deal for it. Everything just kind of took off so we decided to do new packaging, and this is the first real release. The only way we released it a year ago was online.

JH: Has there been a good response from the road?

T: Yes. You know every town we play. It’s awesome. Because first of all, we’re always playing in new cities. We’re fairly new at touring. We’ve probably been to about 35 dates, away from home. 40 dates , and every time we go to a city, it’s pretty much our first time there. But what’s cool is we’re seeing a lot of people who know the lyrics and are responding to our songs. We’re one of those bands that even if you’ve never heard of us before, we’ll win you over. 100%.

JH: What can someone expect from on of your live shows?

T: It’s just intense. Pretty much exactly what you hear on the record. We’re a really tight band live, and the three of us who are not on the drum set are going absolutely nuts. Bouncing all over the place. We try and kill ourselves on stage.

JH: Isn’t that what it’s all about?

T: Yeah.

JH: So how long do you plan on being out on the road?

T: Next run is going to take us through mid-November. Early December. Then we’ll be taking a nice little Christmas break and we should be back out on the road late-January again. Up until around spring. Then we’ll either stop to write another record. Unless we get added to the Warped Tour or something like that.

JH: Who are some of you influences?

T: That is the hardest question to answer. Between the four of us, we are influenced by everything from Kansas to Slayer to Hendrix to Zepplin to Metallica to The Deftones. Rage. Every member has such a wide spectrum of musical tastes. There is not just one style. Or genre.

JH: And it shows in your music. The few songs I’ve heard.

T: Thank you very much. That’s one of the things we really try to accomplish, that sets us apart from other bands because we don’t set ourselves in one little groove that only certain people can understand. I think that anybody who enjoys music, can find at least one thing that they can relate to in our songs. We listen to everything. And we put that into our music.

JH: Is there any type of theme or message you try to convey in any of your songs?

T: Ah, no. With the exception of four songs, the majority of the record was written over three years ago. So basically, when we went into the studio we said, let’s just take our new songs, and let’s take the best of the songs that we’ve been playing for the past four years and throw ’em on a disk. At the time we were just saying, fuck it cause we were going on the road. We were just going to make a record to sell at the shows to make some money to cover expenses. But when it came out sounding way better than we thought it was going to. Even though we’re not 100% in love with it due to the dated material for us, but it’s really like a soundtrack for us. Each song represents a different point in our life as a band. So there was never one frame of consciousness to write all the songs. The record is all over the place.

JH: What are some of your long-term goals for the band?

T: We’re hoping the we can gain a lot of exposure with this record, so that when we come out with our next record, we can really hit it the right way. We have already got some songs written for the next record and they’re beyond anything that we’ve ever thought of. We’re really excited for the future of what we want to do. And making music together, for a long time.

JH: Cool, that’s about it. Anything you’d like to say?

T: No, not really. Go out and buy the record if you like it and come out to one of our shows.